What Are Systemic Constellations and How Do They Work?

What Are Systemic Constellations and How Do They Work?

At the core of every human experience lies a web of relationships—our families, work environments, communities, and inner dynamics. Often, patterns of struggle, emotional burdens, or repeating cycles originate not just from personal experiences but from something bigger: our system.

What Are Systems?

A system is a group of interconnected elements that influence one another. In human relationships, systems include families, teams, organizations, and social structures. Each system has its own dynamics, rules, and patterns that shape individual behavior and experiences. When there is an imbalance—such as unresolved past events or unspoken tensions—it can create challenges that persist across generations or within groups.

Systemic constellations offer a way to uncover and address these hidden dynamics. Used in coaching, education, and personal development, this approach reveals the unconscious connections influencing our behavior, emotions, and decisions. At Beyond – a retreat on intuition, systemic constellations serve as a practical tool for gaining new perspectives and making meaningful shifts.

The Essence of Systemic Constellations

Systemic constellations are based on the understanding that individuals are deeply interconnected within their systems, whether familial, organizational, or social. Developed by Bert Hellinger, this method explores how unresolved issues from previous generations can manifest in our present lives.

Rather than engaging in traditional discussion-based methods, systemic constellations work through spatial representation and 3D mapping. Participants set up a constellation—an external representation of their internal experience—using people or objects (figurines, floor anchors, gems, symbols, etc) to represent family members, emotions, or elements of a situation. This process brings subconscious patterns to light, allowing for new perspectives and potential resolutions.

How Does It Work?

A typical systemic constellation follows these steps:

1. Defining the Question – The facilitator helps the participant clarify an issue they want to explore. This could be a personal challenge, a repeating pattern, or a sense of being stuck.
2. Setting Up the Constellation – Representatives (other participants or symbolic objects) are chosen to embody key elements of the issue—often people from the participant’s family system or aspects of their inner world.
3. Observing the Dynamics –  Once the representatives are positioned, the facilitator and participant observe how they relate to one another. Often, representatives report physical sensations, emotions, or impulses that arise naturally, giving insight into the underlying dynamics of the system. These emerging patterns help identify unspoken tensions, hidden loyalties, or unresolved issues. The facilitator guides the process by asking questions, making small adjustments, or creating invitations.
4. Resolution and Integration – By making shifts in the constellation—changing positions, acknowledging unspoken truths, or expressing what was repressed—the system finds balance. This creates clarity, recognition, and allows a movement where things may have previously felt stuck.

Why Experience a Systemic Constellation?

Many participants describe systemic constellations as an eye-opening experience. Some benefits include:

• Gaining clarity on long-standing personal or professional issues
• Breaking free from inherited patterns that no longer serve
• Strengthening relationships and understanding family dynamics
• Unlocking new perspectives on life’s challenges
• Cultivating a stronger sense of connection to oneself and others

The 3 systemic principles

In systemic work, different dynamics and principles interact within a system. 

There are 3 fundamental principles that often play a role within a system:

• Belonging – Every member has a place, and right to belong. When someone in a system is forgotten or excluded—whether intentionally or not—it can create imbalance, often leading to difficulties for future generations who unconsciously try to restore that lost connection.
• Organization – Each person has their place in a system and each place comes in order. In families, for example, parents are meant to lead, and children need space to be children. When these places become blurred, it can lead to confusion and strain in relationships.
• Exchange – Relationships function best when there is a constant motion of giving and taking. If one person gives too much without receiving, or if someone takes without giving back, relationships get stuck. A healthy system allows for reciprocity and natural flow.

As well as dynamics:

• polarities—opposing forces that are deeply connected. Love and hate, for example, are different sides of the same coin. Strong emotions, whether positive or negative, indicate a deep bond and thesis-antithesis type of relation. A systemic constellation allows these opposites to be acknowledged, moving towards a synthesis—a perspective where the tension between the two finds resolution or balance.
• Systems Attract Systems Systems do not function in isolation—they interact, merge, and influence one another. Just as individuals are drawn to certain relationships based on unconscious patterns, systems also attract and connect with other systems that reflect or complement their dynamics. For example, an organization with a culture of strict hierarchy may attract employees who unconsciously seek structure and authority, while a family system marked by unspoken loss may find itself connected to other systems carrying similar unresolved experiences.

This is how principles and dynamics may play a role in shaping relationships, professional environments, and even our life choices. Recognizing these patterns through systemic constellations, creates clarity and restores flow.

Where can I participate in a Systemic Constellation?

In Beyond, you can experience a variety of systemic constellations, both as a representative and as the person bringing your own question!

During the 5 days long retreat program, participants can explore questions about life, relationships, and transitions using systemic constellations, phenomenological approach and existential coaching as the main methods. You’ll have time to focus on whats most important to you, together with a small international group of a maximum of 24 participants.

Whether you are new to systemic work or have experienced constellations before, systemic work paired with existential coaching and nature offers an opportunity to look at your system in a different way.

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